


The Treaty

by Rei382



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, Suit Shop AU, game shop au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:23:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei382/pseuds/Rei382
Summary: It all started on an especially boring day at the store, and the need for mall employees to unite and help each other to survive.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Comments: 25
Kudos: 45





	The Treaty

**Author's Note:**

> This one is based off a post on Tumblr by orarewedancy about a real life situation at the mall. As a former mall employee, I connected.

Slow days were the worst. Time didn’t move, and shifts took forever to end. There were only so much invented tasks to be done at _LIИK_ , but at some point even dusting a clean shelf made zero sense. Sadly, after the last time, none of the workers dared to use the try-out gaming console at the store. At least, at days that were not Sunday. But today was not a Sunday; it just was an especially slow Tuesday evening and Ed was a moment from giving another swipe to the floor, which was his hated chore, so it meant _something_. He even finished with his homework, which he also was not supposed to do, but his boss already learned that if there are no people at the store it was better to just let him do that than, say, change the store’s appearance.

It surely didn’t help that he was alone in this evening shift, which were usually manned by two people. Not that he liked his coworkers that much, but they were okay enough for a geeky conversation on a slow evening such as this one. He reached for his can of coke and brought it to his lips, trying to take a sip only to realize he already finished it. Sighing, he threw the empty can in the trash bin and left the cashier stand where he's been standing and walked towards the shop's entrance. A quick glance around the mall showed him that he was not the only one bored out of his mind. With only two people walking through the mall's halls, and those two being as far as the other side of the floor, retail workers of all the shops near him seemed to be a minute from walking up the walls as well. The sportswear shop to the right had their employees - two girls who always helped if he needed someone to watch over the shop while he went to the restroom - stood inside their store and chatted. The blond one (he always forgot their names) waved at him, gestured sleeping imitation, to which he smiled and shrugged before moving on. The girl at the shoe store across from him was leaning on her cashier counter, going through her phone with a bored look, which suggested she was probably scrolling through stuff she'd already seen in hope of having something new there. He moved on, to the suit store that was just across from the video games store. Their sign, _Alfredo's_ , was hanging in elegant black over their large and somewhat intimidating entrance. He loved looking at that one; though he tried to avoid it, feeling himself too obvious. But it was really hard to resist. All their employees were on the good-looking side, and, to top that, were always fully dressed in high-quality suits. It was really hard not to look.

The two guys who were working this evening were also standing there, looking bored, but chatting. Ed was about to move his look away and continue on his General Mall Scan™ when one of the guys - the slightly chubby red-haired one - caught him looking and kept the stare for a few seconds longer than Ed was comfortable with. Then the guy smiled, and - oh, no, oh _shit_ \- walked towards the exit of the store and directly towards - 

"Hey," he said. Ed had no place to run to.

So he smiled. "Yo."

"We've never spoke before, haven't we?"

"No, no, I don't think so."

"But you've been working here for a while." Ed nodded. "Me too. Nice to meet ya, neighbor. I'm Heymans. The guy who works with me today, that's Jean. Yo! Jean!" the other guy - Jean - looked towards them as well. He was blond, and looked a bit on the dumb side, but well, Ed didn't judge. Yet. He pretended all the yelling didn't bother him. "Say hi!" 

There was a slightly faded 'hi' from the other side of the corridor. Ed forced himself to smile. He felt extremely lucky that on this day, that the Suit Guys decided to start a conversation, it was these two - and not the other two. The other two... Ed pushed that thought to the back of his head. _Not_ a good time for a boner. He suddenly noticed Heymans looking at him with an expectant look. It took another moment for Ed to realize what he was waiting for. "Uh, I'm Edward. But Ed's fine." Why did he even give his birth name? He hated the long version. That's what his father used to call him. His mom always called him just, Ed. Unless she was mad at him, but that wasn't a very positive association either.

"Ed. Cool. Dead today, eh?" but he didn't really wait for Ed to answer before he continued. "Listen, uh... do you guys have a microwave here?"

Ed blinked. "A... yeah, we do. Uhm, you don't?"

"No." Heymans looked somewhat sad. "We always used the one at _Happenings_ but well, they closed. Probably did the smart thing," he chuckled. Ed remembered the store he was talking about. Located right next to the suit store where now there was a big “FOR RENT” sign, they sold mostly stupid children shit. Even on busier days than today, they barely had any traffic. "But now we have no place to warm up dinner, so..." he shrugged. ”Anyway... came here to ask, can we use your microwave?"

As if Ed cared. He wasn't the one who paid the bills. "Sure. It's, uh, right there," he pointed towards the storage, where he'd sit and have his own meals - or on busier days, escape for a few minutes from the demanding crowd, which usually consisted of annoying teenagers who just made a lot of noise, a lot of mess, and very little sales. Heymans glanced at where he pointed, and then smiled at him.

“I’ll be right back then, man,” and like that, he left, walking back towards the suit store and back to his (slightly hotter) friend. He saw them talking for a moment, and then Heymans disappeared at the back of the store. The blond (Jean?) looked towards him again, and with a big beam on his face he raised his two thumbs up. In the meanwhile Heymans showed up again with a little box in his hands. He walked through the store, and crossed the corridor shamelessly with the lunchbox until he reached to the video game store. He winked at Ed and walked straight towards the storage room. 

Ed offered a smile in return, and then walked back to the cashier stand. Not that there was anything interesting there, but it felt less awkward than standing there and staring into space. Somehow, the plain gray desk, covered in shit he was supposed to sell (disk-on-keys, RAM extensions) and the POS, felt a bit safer than the open space of the floor. Not that he felt that he needed any protection from the guy in the nice suit currently staring at the microwave expectantly, and it was a feeling he found hard to describe, but he found himself more comfortable there. Soon enough, though, the microwave beeped and Heymans took his food out and got out of the storage room.

"Thanks again, man. Real life savior you are. Say, is it cool that Jean there will heat up his food here too in a bit? Of course we shouldn't take break together, even on a dead day like this, so like, in half an hour so."

Ed was going to be stuck here for at least four more hours. As far as he cared they could come heat up their food every half an hour for the next four hours. "Yeah, sure. No problem. Enjoy your dinner!"

*

A potential customer walked in, took a look, asked some stupid questions and then left, promising to be back after he 'thought about it'. Ed said sure, but he was not born yesterday, nor did he start working in retail an hour ago. He knew the chances of this client ever coming back and buying something, therefore making himself worth the effort of going through the explanations of the different games and what console each version could go with, were slim to none. Probably just like the chances of Ed making a sell before the end of the night, therefore making the hours he was in the store worth paying for. But that wasn't on him. He got his paycheck, twice a month, every month. At least the kid (Ed was sure he wasn't over eighteen) provided some kind of entertainment, lame as it was. The fact that Ed was pretty sure he was going to use the information he provided and pirate the game was already none of Ed's business. 

Once he left, it was dead again, and Ed, bored out of his mind, walked through the aisles of the games and made sure they were all in line. Not that it took so long; the store only had three aisles, and each was no longer than two meters. People rarely bought video games at stores these days; they either pirated them, or, the more decent ones, used some kind of streaming services to legally download them. He finished the last row and got back up on his feet - just in time to be face-to-face with the blond guy in a suit, looking at him with a smile and, not surprisingly, holding a plastic box in his hands. 

Had it really been only half an hour since the other guy left?

"Uh, hi," Ed said, feeling awkward. He knew from their position when he got up exactly what part of the guy was inches from his head, and he didn't like that. Especially not when he was wearing this extremely well-fitted suit. Did the store actually tailored them for the employees, as well? "Microwave's right there," he pointed. "Storage room. Feel free."

"Thanks dude." And he walked in the direction Ed pointed. Ed heard the buzzing sound of the microwave and walked back towards the cashier counter, again, leaning on the desk and staring into the emptiness. The sound of water caught his attention and made him look towards the storage room, where he saw Jean filling a plastic cup with water. "You don't mind, do you?"

No, Ed did not mind. But it seemed that his bladder did. He probably shouldn't have drank that coke. Not when he's alone at the store and - 

He wasn't alone, though. "No, of course. Gotta drink, eh?" Good. He was friendly. Sort of. "Say, if you're already here, do you mind keeping an eye for a minute? I gotta go take a piss."

Jean frowned. "Sure, but," he looked around, his frown deepening. "You don't have one here?"

Now it was Ed's turn to look confused. "Toilet? No, I always go to the ones on the left corridor - "

"Oh, man. No, you didn't just say that. That's..." he shook his head. "Go to _Alfredo's_ , Heymans will show you where it is. Jeez! The mall's toilet. That's nasty, man. Go, go. I'm keeping an eye. Not that there's much to look out for, but, eh, we all know what it's like."

“Yeah… well, okay. I’ll go there. Thanks.” With one lasts glance at Jean, who returned to stare at the microwave (and tempting Ed to tell him how unhealthy that was), Ed turned and made his way across the corridor to the suit store. He felt somewhat awkward; he never in his life went into another store just to use their restroom, and… he never entered a store as fancy as this one before. He probably couldn’t even afford a tie that was sold here; let alone a suit. Not that he wanted to. Yeah, it looked good… on _other_ people. It wasn’t exactly his style. 

Ed walked through the store's entrance which was decorated by two mannequins dressed head-to-toe in luxurious-looking suits. The left one was dressed in a dark blue suit, with a white dress shirt underneath the jacket and a beige tie, and the one to the right was dressed in a wine-red suit, white dress shirt, but a black tie. In between there was a small table displaying various ties. To the sides, various suits - most of them dark in color, but a few in lighter colors and even white - were hanging, carefully placed and organized in a harmonic manner, over the walls. Ed walked in, feeling even more awkward in his dark jeans and _Megadeth_ black shirt than he did when it was only the thought of entering the store for peeing. 

Immediately when he crossed the table, Heymans - who seemed to be busy with his phone at the cashier counter - looked up and was already upright, smiling politely and with a greeting on his lips when his expression changed in recognition. "Oh, hey man! Need something?"

As if he didn't feel awkward already. "Uh... Jean said you had toilet here? And that it's cool if I use it?" 

Heymans looked at him with the same horrified look Jean had, back at _LIИK_. "You mean you've been using the mall's ones all this time? Man, I salute your bravery. Go on, go on. Just go over the counter here and to the right. Light's a bit flickery but don't worry, we checked, the ghost is friendly." He winked. 

"Oh, uh, cool. Friendly ghost." Ed wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that; he knew it was a joke, but he was too tense to laugh; he did manage a small smile and a nod before he walked towards when Heymans showed him (he pointed again once Ed crossed behind the counter). He found the toilet - a little stall, indeed with a flickery light, not looking the most new. But certainly, without any doubt, it was much better than the mall’s restroom, which was, more often than not, smelly and dirty.

When he was done, he got out (thank God! They had _soap!_ ) and started walking back towards _LIИK_ , bidding a quick thanks to Heymans, who was, once again, nose deep in his phone.

“No problem man!” was his answer, without lifting his face. Ed kept on his journey, and almost made it to the exit of the store when Heymans called his name, making him stop. “Do you want to make this, like, a thing? I mean, we’d all benefit. We’d use your microwave, you can use our toilet. I mean, as long as you and the people you work with are… you know, humans, and not, say, beasts.”

Ed blinked. “Uh, yeah, sure. I promise we’re not beasts,” that made him smile a little.

“Cool man. I’ll let you get back to your little store now, don’t want to keep you away for too long. But I guess I’ll see you around!”

“Uh, yeah, guess so! I’ll get your friend here so you won’t be too bored. See ya!” He made his way to the shop, freeing Jean from babysitting it with a friendly smile. He was in a slightly lifted mood. Anything that allowed him not to make the journey to the other end of the floor, only to find that most stalls were unusable, was good. And besides, now that he was on better terms with the suit guys…

But no, he couldn’t let himself go there, not even in his thoughts. Yes, he will be seeing him more, probably, and up closer, but… on his way to the restroom, which was hardly an honorable opportunity.

But he will see him more, and more closely.

Oh, fuck! What if he’d come to use the microwave, too?!


End file.
